Catchfence

For the first time this Sprint Cup season, Bill Elliott and the No. 21 Motorcraft/ Quick Lane Ford Fusion failed to finish a race. Their race ended on Lap 179 of the LifeLock.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway Saturday night when the right rear tire of the No. 21 blew as Elliott entered Turn Four. As he bounced off the wall, he was struck by the oncoming car of Robby Gordon, an impact that likely means that particular chassis has seen its last racing action.

“I cut a tire and from there I was just along for the ride,” Elliott said after climbing from the car and being checked out at the track’s infield care center. He said the impact from the collision with Gordon, one that knocked the wheels of the Motorcraft/Quick Lane car off the ground, wasn’t as bad as it might have seen to those who saw it.

“It was no easy day, but it wasn’t that bad,” he said. “I am OK.” Elliott, who wound up 37th in the finishing order, said the real pain he felt was for his David Hyder-led crew, which worked hard to give him a competitive car. He was running just one lap behind the leaders when he was knocked out of the race. “I feel bad for the guys,” he said. “We have worked hard, but we have missed something, whether it is the spoiler or whatever, we just can’t get where we need to be. “We are just OK out there. Everybody is really working hard and trying to help us out, then something like this happens, and it is just really unfortunate.”

Team co-owner Eddie Wood, looking for a bright spot on an otherwise disappointing night, pointed out that while the team’s No. 21 suffered a rare DNF [Did Not Finish], it wasn’t related to the reliability of their Ford Fusion. “We really haven’t had any mechanical issues in a while,” Wood said. “The cars have been really good.”

Elliott, Hyder and the rest of the Wood Brothers crew now turn their attention to their next appearance, in two weeks in the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which historically has been one of Elliott’s better tracks. In 15 career starts there, he has a win, in 2002, and five top-five starts, including a fourth-place qualifying run last year in the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Fusion.

- Wood Brothers Racing, Press Release